Jake's Adventures

Here's Jake chiming in with a blog addition:

I had an opportunity to travel down to the Grand Canyon as part of a Geology class I am taking this semester.  It was a lot of driving with 10 people stuffed into a 12 passenger van.  But it was fun and very enlightening.

The roads we traveled on this trip are some that I have traveled my entire life.  I have traveled I-15 from Logan to St. George ever since I was a little kid.  I learned a lot about the mountains and valleys that I-15 travels along.  I will always look at this stretch of road differently.

Like most of my classes, I am the oldest student and it was different to spend 3 nights with young people.  It wasn't too bad as I had brought my own tent.  I often went to bed early as I used every bit of time to try to catch up on the lack of sleep I have been getting due to Breahna.

The first day we drove to the Grand Canyon.  I can't remember really going there during my childhood, so I was looking forward to seeing it.  

I was amazed at how deep it is.  I have seen some pretty deep canyons, but nothing to this magnitude.  I got really nervous as I get skittish on cliff edges and high places.  I got brave enough to lay on my stomach and look over the edge.  3000 ft down lay the river.  It was incredible and disorienting.

I also got pretty anxious watching my fellow students goofing of near the edge. It was a long way down.

The next day we drove through Zion's and then along US-89 through some of my favorite parts of Utah.  These pictures are sandstone that developed from ancient dunes.  The lines in the sandstone are the depository side of migrating sand dunes.  Like most of the trip, I had been to Zion's several times and never really known the history of these marvelous formations. 

More Zion's pictures

Our last night of camping was just outside of Moab.  We camped along the bank of the Colorado river.  The rock formations are incredible here with a lot of horizontal sedimentary rock layers, massive uplift, and differential erosion.

On our way home, we stopped by Dead Horse Point to view the incised Green and Colorado river.  The power water has on rock is impressive.  What majestic creations.

 

Overall, the trip was very good.  The driving was extensive, but I learned a lot.  It was nice to get away for a bit.  But I was excited to get back to Kristen and the kids.